hmmm... this is funny. i can't view my blog (or any of the other blogger blogs i read) from here in shanghai but it seems that i can make a new entry. i wonder if you all can see this? i think american blogs hosted by blogger are blocked, but blogger china seems fine.

anyhow, i think most of you know but just in case--i'm in shanghai now and that's why i've been m.i.a. for so long. i have less than two weeks left here (i've been here since june 12th) before i head to beijing to visit relatives and meet up with my parents. after a week and a half there, i'll be returning to the states with my parents.

i've been keeping a journal on my laptop in Word and i write in it sporadically. when i get home, i'll post some excerpts (the thing is 38 pages right now).

i don't want to say too much about my trip so far because i don't want to rush to judgment about how i feel and what i've taken away. even with just eleven days left out of what began as around sixty and each day filled with pondering my situation and experiences and my attitudes towards it all, i think i need more time to reflect upon it more wholly. what i will say though, because i think it's pretty safe to say, is that this has been the most challenging thing i have ever done--the most emotionally taxing thing, and it has certainly made me do a lot of brow-furrowing thinking.

anyways, i think i am ready to move on and i look forward to returning to the states so that i may share my summer abroad with you and catch up on everything i've missed.

all the best.